Literary fiction
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Small Press Shoutout: The Permanent Press!
I’ve decided to return to one of the blog’s most popular features, the Small Press Shoutout. This week we take a look at The Permanent Press, which has been cranking out titles since 1978. Started by husband-and-wife team Martin and Judith Shepard, their catalog includes several award-winning mysteries and the undersung Icelandic novelist Halldor Laxness Continue reading
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Jacke Wilson News: What’s Up for 2014
Readers, I’m working hard. Here are some new things I hope to roll out in the first half of 2014: The Race: A Novella New Cover (already finished!) International links (scheduled for next Monday) Epub version and wider distribution (finally!) Print version (yes! at last!) New Releases The Promotion: A Novella – Takes a look at Continue reading
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New Year, New Cover!
Happy New Year, everyone! And guess what? I’m very excited to unveil the new cover for The Race: A Novella. I couldn’t be happier with how it looks and the way it suggests the themes and tone of the book. Many thanks to my brilliant designer and all the others who put in their comments and Continue reading
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Penelope Fitzgerald and Failure (and Free Fiction!)
Still thinking about Penelope Fitzgerald and being drawn to failure. And it made me think of this passage in The Race: A Novella (available now at Amazon.com!), in which the narrator first meets the Governor’s wife: “Who’s he?” Tina said to the Governor in the foyer. “My biographer!” I explained that it was actually an autobiography – Continue reading
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Beta Readers: New Jacke Book Shipping Today!
Definition of a good day: A Halloween post on the indie-publishing spirit of nineteenth-century France (did you miss the Halloween connection? look again!) Shipping out copies of the next Jacke Wilson book to my fantastic early readers I’m trying a new tactic this time: hard copies, a comment sheet, and a return envelope, postage paid. Continue reading
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Independent Publishing: What Would Marcel Proust Do?
This is an easy one: we know what Proust would do, because he did it: Still, for all the brouhaha, many modern readers still find themselves in agreement with the two French publishers who turned down Proust’s manuscript [Swann’s Way] in 1912. A third agreed to publish it, provided that Proust himself cover the expenses. I Continue reading
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Self-Publishing Literary Fiction – A Ray of Hope
Oh, it’s hard times for literary fiction in general, I know. (People don’t read it any more!) And for indie publishers, there is the stigma. (Who do you think you are? You need to have someone else decide whether your book should be available to readers…) But there’s hope! As David Gaughran, guru of marketing Continue reading
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An Open Letter to Laura Miller
Dear Ms. Miller, We have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past. And my tone was perhaps inappropriate. However, I will try to do better. I think your heart is in the right place and I have long appreciated your devotion to good writing and good literature. I am a fan of yours when you’re Continue reading
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Congratulations, Alice Munro!
Munro is a very deserving author indeed, who has not only given great insight and pleasure to her readers, but has been a model and inspiration for so many authors, perhaps especially those of shorter-form fiction. Like Borges, she has shown that rich fictional worlds can be created in the span of a few pages. Continue reading
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The Great Novella Tournament of Champions: Billy Budd v. The Secret Sharer
The Great Novella Tournament of Champions celebrates a classic literary form believed to be poised for a comeback. The judge is a long-time fan of the form who is in the final stages of self-publishing a novella of his own. Off we go! First up in our celebrity novella deathmatch are a couple of Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 